Taliban say they won’t work with US to curb extremist groups



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The Taliban said on Saturday they would not work with the United States to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, AP reports.

Why is this important: The remarks come as a US delegation meets with senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar on Saturday and Sunday.

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Driving the news: Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AP there would be no cooperation with the United States to suppress ISIS’s increasingly active affiliate in Afghanistan, according to AP.

  • “We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” said Shaheen, using another term for ISIS.

  • ISIS is increasingly active in Afghanistan, and a suicide bombing inside a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday killed more than 45. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the explosion.

The big picture: In the February 29, 2020 agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban, the insurgents agreed to prevent terrorist groups from filling the void as the United States began a full withdrawal.

  • Ahead of the weekend’s meetings in Qatar, a State Department spokesperson told Axios that the United States intends to push the leaders to honor their pledge not to leave al-Qaeda or other extremists “use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States.” States or its allies.

  • The US delegation will include representatives from the government intelligence community, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development.

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